Friday, 26 November 2010

NFC - Near Field Communication

NFC ( Near Field Communication ) is a short-range ( upto 10 cm ) wireless technology that allows the exchange of data between devices.Now that instead of carrying your wallet/purse filled with credit/debit cards, one can just flash their mobile phone against the NFC reader/scanner which in turn recognize and validate your identity.To make it more secure one needs to punch in their pass-code to complete the transaction.Initially companies came up with different ideas to fit in NFC chip into the mobile device.

1.A Micro SD card with NFC chip, which will be provided by your bank/organisation, one needs to insert the Micro SD card into their mobile phone and download a simple application which will interface with the Micro SD card.

2.Few American banks came up with NFC stickers ( like the ones we normally see at the book store ) which can be stuck on their mobile phones.

NFC Developments in India

We all would have seen amazing videos on Youtube about different gadgets and still wonder when would we personally use them in our daily life ! NFC is no such technology, guess what SBI ( State bank of India ) has recently acquired 20% stake in Alittleworld (ALW ) developer of NFC based cost bank branch solution and paid around ( $ 18 million ).

Around 3000 customers signed up for the 26 week- trial with over 250 merchant locations and 50,000 purchases made during the trial.

Various Applications

Coca Cola has recently tied up with European NFC payment company Ping Ping to incorporate NFC into their vending machines.

Accenture is working on NFC Airline ticketing services.This includes right from sending the NFC ticket to the customer where one will download it to their mobile device and use it for check-in,security,boarding.This will reduce printing and associated costs.

Apple has come up with iTunes Kiosk where one can download apps and movies on to their iphones

NFC can also be used as a passkey to enter into your office/department/hotel rooms or be it your own house !

Smart Posters, where NFC chip is embedded into the poster and one can just flash their mobile device and download more information about the event or can send in their contact info or even buy their tickets.